A bargaining breakdown and strikes: the ongoing union fight at Starbucks
Negotiations between Starbucks and its union have broken down, with workers calling the company’s proposals “almost laughable” and highlighting the multimillion pay package of the coffee chain’s recently appointed CEO.Since late 2021, over 530 Starbucks stores have won union elections, representing more than 12,000 workers at the company.But talks aimed at negotiating a first union contract have stalled and the company has called the union’s proposals “not sustainable”.Workers said the pay of Starbucks’ new CEO, Brian Niccol, who left Chipotle in August 2024 to assume the role of CEO at Starbucks, is at the center of the breakdown in contract negotiations between Starbucks and Starbucks Workers United.Niccol’s pay package includes up to $113m in total compensation, 10,000 times the median salary of a Starbucks barista, with a $10m sign-on bonus, $75m in stock options plus a remote office in southern California and access to the company’s private jet to travel to Starbucks headquarters in Seattle, Washington.
“It’s almost laughable.It comes off as a joke almost.My annual raise is going to come out to about 30 cents an hour.The difference it makes in my paycheck from a month ago and now, it just would not be enough to cover a $7 Starbucks drink let alone gas, my bills, rent, anything else I have to worry about,” Diego Franco, a barista at a Starbucks in Chicago for five years and a bargaining representative for the union, told the Guardian.“I would love to see this company being able to pay us a livable wage.
I don’t think anybody should need to pick up multiple jobs to be able to make rent at the end of the month or be able to pay for groceries.”Union contract negotiations at Starbucks broke down in December 2024, a few months after Niccol assumed the helm as CEO at Starbucks.The two sides had been negotiating after a new framework agreement was reached in early 2024 between the company and union.As talks foundered, Starbucks workers launched a wave of strikes at more than 300 stores around the US, with more than 5,000 baristas participating.“It wasn’t even an offer, it was just a piece of paper that I’m sure they knew was going to make us upset.
We didn’t organize to get nothing,We organized to firmly demand what we needed,” said Mari Cosgrove, a shift supervisor at Starbucks in Seattle,“As fun, large and meaningful as this first strike was, it was a warning shot,There are more actions and more things coming, because we are not sitting on our thumbs, waiting for this contract to fall on our laps,We will get it.
”Starbucks Workers United filed an unfair labor practice charge in December 2024 alleging the company “refused to bargain and engaged in bad faith bargaining over economic issues”,In January 2025, Starbucks Workers United filed an additional 36 unfair labor practice charges against the company,“In October, we were ready to exchange comprehensive economic proposals,In October, November and December, Starbucks failed to bring viable economic proposals to the table that included real investment in baristas,This is backtracking on months and months of progress and promises from the company to work toward an end-of-year framework ratification,” said Michelle Eisen, a 14-year Buffalo Starbucks barista and bargaining delegate, in a press release on the strike.
Leanna Lee, a Starbucks shift supervisor in the New York City area, criticized the assumption that all Starbucks workers do is make coffee in response to the union’s demand for higher wages, including a base pay of $20 an hour, with raises and cost of living adjustments.“It is a very physically demanding job.You’re on your feet for most likely 8-plus hours.When you’re working in one position, it’s never just one position, you’re encouraged to do multiple things at once.When you’re making a drink, you’re not supposed to be just making one,” Lee said.
An internal survey of Starbucks baristas revealed in October 2024 that only one-third of baristas reported their store was consistently staffed well, with the CEO, Niccol, responding to the survey, “the team is already working on it.You are being heard.”A Starbucks spokesperson did not directly comment on Niccol’s compensation or the company’s economic proposal to the union that prompted the breakdown in contract negotiations, but noted the company pays an average of $18 an hour, including benefits such as health insurance, tuition through the Arizona State University online program, paid family leave and company stock grants.“Workers United proposals call for an immediate increase in the minimum wage of hourly partners by 64%, and by 77% over the life of a three-year year contract.This is not sustainable.
We are ready to continue negotiations to reach agreements.We need the union to return to the table,” a Starbucks spokesperson, Phil Gee, said in an email.
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